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Attack Of The Jedi: A Closer Look

What a treat to get the finale for Lego’s The Yoda Chronicles right before Thanksgiving and the Christmas Season! Thank the maker we didn’t have to wait a whole three months like last time. All the same, it was worth the wait and a fantastic final chapter for this great series! So now, why don’t we get started and join me on my commentary and thoughts on Attack Of The Jedi!NOTE: Contains spoilers from Attack Of The Jedi, Menace Of The Sith, The Phantom Clone, Episode I, Episode II, Episode III, Episode V, Episode VI, The Ewok Adventures Films, Various Ewoks Episodes, and TCW Episodes Duel Of The Droids, Landing At Point Rain, Weapons Factory, Legacy Of Terror, Brain Invaders, and Nightsisters.

First of all, let’s give the Tom Kane narrator guy a round of applause; the guy just read a sentence that hardly made any sense. And his honest response “…I have no idea what I just read. Let’s just say that the bad guys are losing.” is said without missing a beat. OMG I’m sorry that’s too funny…
So the story opens up on a battle on Geonosis with Yoda, Artoo, Threepio, Anakin, Obi-Wan, and the crackerjack team of younglings taking on the Sith and Separatists once again, and ultimately winning. Of course, the fact they’re on Geonosis again gets me thinking… didn’t Obi-Wan, in the TCW Season 2 episode Landing At Port Rain, tell Cody that the upcoming battle would be the second time they’d had to take Geonosis? And Obi-Wan was all “I can’t believe we’re back here again… *frowny face*”. Well, I take it that he’s never exactly thrilled to hang out on that buggy planet, and who would be? My theory is simple: the Geonosis four-parter was a lot harder than this three-minute battle, so I suppose it only counted as taking Geonosis twice. What we’re seeing in the beginning of this escapade is more like a skirmish. And I think we tend to forget that, you know, Geonosis is a planet, not a country. There could easily be a small battle going on in one part while the whole “brain worm” debacle would be coming up elsewhere before long. I guess that makes sense… let’s just go with it, ‘k?
So yeah, the good guys were compeletely pwning the Clone Wars. Funny to think that there was a time in the earlier days of the war when victory was so common, the Senate became a dance floor. Of course, this is Lego SW, which tends to be on the lighter side versus TCW itself when it was sort of a victory-loss-victory-loss sort of pattern on a regular basis (one of these days I ought to try and keep score). And when you think of the fact that in their latest battle, the Jedi just whupped Dooku, Ventress, Grievous, Maul (yuuuupp he’s still hanging around…), and an entire droid army! In ONE LITTLE SKIRMISH. What’s up with that? The fearsome foursome, known for their insane evilness and killing tons of good folks, are forced to abandon ship when Yoda and his gang show up! Wow… but I guess if we’re talking early in the Clone Wars era, Ventress and Grievous are still rookies in the Sith game, and for pete’s sake, Dooku and Maul aren’t too great at evil planning. So I suppose that makes sense. But yeah, Palpatine’s putting on his fake smile on the regular as he makes note of the Republic’s latest win. Also: could this be one of the most interesting Senate meetings ever? Not necessarily because of what was being discussed, but because of Lando Calrissian Sr. and a Basic-speaking wampa with a British-y accent, both reppin’ their planets XD The wampa totally caught me off-guard and got me laughing for ten minutes after the joke was over!
So just as Palpatine stops the pre-party party at his words of “caution”, Commander Cody has made a very interesting discovery: the fearsome foursome are all on Mustafar! And the Jedi are like “BOOM! We got this in the bag!” and are off to what they assume to be their newest victory. Of course, Palpatine just heard all of this and has a chance to surprise attack the Jedi’s surprise attack… >:)
Why exactly are all the baddies in one place? Because after deciding that Sith clones weren’t the way to go, they decided they need to fight fire with fire… or in this case Padawans with… “Bad-awans”.
They figured they needed their own crackerjack team of adventurous kids to help them win! I found this concept quite fascinating; whenever we’ve seen Sith apprentices, they tend to be on the older side. Mostly because, I guess, Force-sensitive people have a choice between sides, and the Jedi just happen to be better at getting to these kids first. Ventress and Dooku were both ex-Jedi, Savage Opress kinda got pulled into it without much choice (not that he’s really Force-sensitive, I don’t think…), Grievous and Maul? Who knows. Soooo… my questions are where on earth (figuratively speaking) did they find this class of Sith Padawans? And the evil little astromech? (Goldie isn’t the only one, I guess…) Perhaps they were all delinquent Jedi students? The kids that all got a “clouded future” report from Yoda? Frankly, I’m scared to ask about the droid. But yeah, they come off pretty cool at first, but the fact that these kids turn on their new masters pretty quickly… well, as far as Dooku and his gang are concerned, that makes them not so cool. THE TWI’LEK GIRL INSULTED MAUL’S LIGHTSABER WHAT THE HECK?! You have to have a seeeeeeriously awful attitude and a serious lack of fear (not to mention a serious lack of respect) to be able to make fun of who is arguably the most terrifying of these second-banana Sith! Perhaps the reason the Sith don’t have younglings is because the kids are literally meaner and harder to control than young adults. The Sith’s little team has a nice lineup of “knights”, a bunch of tough-beans Badawans, and a quirky little darkside droid… all they need is their wise old leader, their “Yoda” shall we say, Darth Sidious, and they will be truly fighting fire with fire!
Buuuut Sidious? He’s sitting in a cockpit crammed in with Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Threepio. His plan was going awesome and he was just swaggering out of his office singing “I AM SO GONNA WIN, GONNA WIN, GONNA WIN…!” to the tune of The Imperial March when he had to switch back to his faux friendly persona at the sight of Master Kenobi and Young Skywalker. So yeah, they naturally wanted to join up and protect him, and it’s all awkwardness and surpressed rage from Palpatine for the rest of the ride. Oh, and that awkward moment when Grievous showed up outside the shuttle window. BWAAHAHAHHAHAHHAHAHAAA! XD
Though in all seriousness, a part of me sits and watches this and screams “HOW CAN YOU NOT SEE THIS, GUYS?! THE TRAGEDY YOU COULD’VE AVOIDED!!” But you’ve got to love the irony and humor of Palpatine’s little “identity crisis” throughout The Yoda Chronicles all the same.
But yeah, naturally, to cover up for Grievous showing up claiming he’s a fellow employee, Palpatine commenced a chase scene and had the entire fleet head after him. Whiiiiiich naturally led to an asteroid field and basically, the entire armada of good guys got creamed and stranded on an asteroid. I must not neglect to mention how fun it is to watch Anakin and Obi-Wan fighting over how to put the pieces of their fleet back together 🙂 Annnnnyway… with the Jedi Temple Bus/Battleship the only thing left standing, the Padawans know just who could help our Republic friends… JEK-14, the “Phantom Clone”.
So currently, JEK is hanging out on Endor, helping out the ewoks. Makes sense in retrospect. I admit I questioned both Naboo and Mandalore, but certainly they’ve had their share of scuffles. Aside from the ferocious beasts, witches, and the occasional crashed ship, Endor’s probably on the top ten list of the most peaceful SW-sian locales. Oh yeah… and the traps. *Sighs* Ackbar tried to tell you… XD
Though anyone else wonder how it is a guy in clone armor managed to befriend the ewoks when in a couple decades they’d go and beat the crud out of guys in very similar armor? Food for thought.
So once again, a bunch of Jedi come to the doorstep of a pacifist sort and ask for a helping hand and well… you know… the pacifist’s all “no way, no how, forget it.” And that’s still how JEK-14 feels right now. I mean, helping fix up the ewoks’ home is more his game right now, and clearly he still wants nothing to do with the Jedi and Sith sides of him. Usually in these scenarios, you send in The Negotiator, or another peaceful sort… but today, the Jedi send in Bobby. If the Jedi are trained in charm, it’s doesn’t surprise me, especially when Bobby’s sweet little puppy dog eyes pretty much turn around JEK’s final answer just like that. “All right, but only because you asked nicely and smiled.” Also: do you guys really think that Yoda looks weird when he smiles? I don’t think that!
So while JEK joined the Jedi to help piece together their fleet, Palpatine got left on Endor with Threepio and all the happy little ewoks. I can’t help but laugh at how his day is slowly becoming the WORST. DAY. EVER. X)
Meanwhile, in a glorious show of the Force at its finest, JEK-14 puts the fleet back together in the form of a huge, amazing ship (that for whatever reason reminds me of The Axiom in WALL-E…). And it’s in this scene that we see once again Anakin and Luke’s crazy resemblance when he’s all “I don’t believe it.” and JEK is all “And that is why you fail.” Sooo one of Yoda’s most soul-stirring quotes was borrowed from someone else? Ehhhh it’s best not to think about it… anyway, with their new ship, the good guys headed out to Mustafar sending their kind-hearted farewells JEK-14’s way. In that moment, JEK starts to have a change of heart, and right on cue with many of these hard-headed peaceful-y sorts, he now decides to do more to help his Jedi friends.
So as for Palpatine? After having taken more than enough ewok singing and dancing, he pretty much cracks, fakes an ewok allergy, and makes a dash to JEK’s ship, leaving Threepio behind, wondering what just happened. Of course, this doesn’t work well in the future Emperor’s favor, because Grievous once again shows up at the worst possible moment and thinks that it’s JEK-14 in the cockpit… and yeah, he kinda blew it up. Palpatine was not happy. AT. ALL. But at least he finally made it to Mustafar and was able to kick those Badawans into gear… right as the good guys showed up. From then on out, the battle is kinda crazy as the Chancellor “helps” one side and the Emperor helps the other. Just when it seemed the Jedi had lost, JEK-14 shows up on his hastily-constructed little Lego speeder-thingy. And he ulimately fries the baddies, especially considering what Dooku and Grievous put him through last time around. Yes, it’s REVENGE OF THE JEK-I! #terriblepunalert
In the end, the Republic is victorious once more, having themselves a Calrissian-style dance party. Well, Palpatine is still hanging around playing his nice old man card, but for now, we don’t need to worry about that. Except perhaps for the fact that he gave a friendly pat on the back to Anakin, who’d been a bit of a sourpuss at JEK getting all the glory…
“…I think you’re a great Jedi.”
“Thanks. And you’re a good man.”
“And you are an excellent judge of character…”
Whoop, here we goez.
As for JEK, who knows what his future holds? Here’s hoping it’s going to involve a generally peaceful lifestyle that won’t end in some manner of SW-sian tragedy. Perhaps a job making Legos 🙂
And then there’s Threepio. He’s stuck going out of his circuits while the ewoks sing their little song instead of helping him out of yet another trap (well, they think he’s a god, remember? They probably thought he could get himself out!) Hahahaha. XD
So what a fantastic series we’ve had to enjoy this year! Exciting, funny, heartfelt, and all-around fantastic! So until another Lego special rolls around, I’ll still be looking for more to chat about in the Star Wars Universe!